BPD in Men: We Can Have Borderline Personality Disorder, Too

Dr. Robert Fischer, executive director of the Optimum Performance Institute and its OPI Intensive, was interviewed by Richard Zwolinski, LMHC, CASAC, and C.R. Zwolinski, Authors of the 2009 Bestseller Therapy Revolution: Find Help, Get Better, and Move On without Wasting Time or Money and the Therapy Soup blog at PsychCentral.com. The original interview appeared on PsychCentral.com. Borderline…

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Use Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) FAST Skills to Balance Keeping Relationships with Keeping Respect for Yourself

This post is the third of a three-part series about Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills, adapted from Marsha M. Linehan’s book, Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder (1993, The Guilford Press, New York, NY). In this three part series, we have looked at DEARMAN skills, the DBT Interpersonal Effectiveness acronym for Objectives Effectiveness, or getting…

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OPI Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary

OPI Living 10th Anniversary

“If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive, do you think ghosts will do it after?” by Kabir translated by Robert Bly, 1971. This year, OPI celebrates its 10th anniversary. Looking back, I remember in 2004 when Anne and I first talked about our dream of establishing the Optimum Performance Institute. We “broke…

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BPD and PTSD: How common is the overlap?

How common is it to have a diagnosis of both Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? This is a key question currently being considered in the mental health community. Studies show anywhere from 26% – 57% of comorbidity of these two disorders. “These findings further suggest that this particular personality disorder…

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Use Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) GIVE Skills to Get and Keep Important Relationships

This post is the second of a three-part series about Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills, adapted from Marsha M. Linehan’s book, Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder (1993, The Guilford Press, New York, NY). A few weeks ago in anticipation of the holiday season, we took a closer look at DEARMAN skills . DEARMAN is…

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Bring DBT DEAR MAN Skills Home for the Holidays

This post is the first of a three-part series about DEAR Skills, adapted from Marsha M. Linehan’s book, Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder (1993, The Guilford Press, New York, NY). The holidays can present challenges to anyone, but for OPI Living and OPI Intensive participants who have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality…

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Launch of Borderline Personality Disorder Magazine and Popularity of Healing from BPD Blog Indicate Demand for More Info on BPD

Brandon Marshall Mental Health Awareness Day

The launch of the new magazine coincides with an increasing public awareness and desire to have more information available about Borderline Personality Disorder. The rapid growth of the HealingFromBPD.org blog site, managed by Debbie Corso and sponsored by the Optimum Performance Institute, confirms this trend. Woodland Hills, CA (PRWEB) November 14, 2013 “Men with Borderline…

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Skillful Job Search Part 4 – Confidence Through Volunteering

This is the last of four posts discussing our approach to helping OPI Living and OPI Intensive participants with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) find and keep a job. Read Part 3 – DEAR Skills on the Job. If obtaining and maintaining part-time work is too overwhelming, the Department of Volunteer & Career Services suggests that…

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Skillful Job Search Part 3 – DEAR Skills on the Job

This is the third of four posts discussing our approach to helping OPI Living and OPI Intensive participants with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) find and keep a job. Read Part 2 – Integrating DBT Skills . In the Department of Volunteer & Career Services at the Optimum Performance Institute, we have found that participants who…

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Skillful Job Search Part 2: Integrating DBT Skills

This is the second of four posts discussing our approach to helping OPI Living and OPI Intensive participants with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) find and keep a job. Read Part 1 – Obtaining a Job with BPD . The first thing we do to help participants tackle the job search process is to create a…

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OPI Intensive Therapists Attend NEA-BPD Borderline Personality Disorder Conference

OPI Intensive Therapists at NEA-BPD Conference

When Alex Miller, Psy.D, spoke about advances in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) at a recent conference about Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), he scored points with Melissa Patterson, MS, therapist at the specialized OPI Intensive for young men and women with BPD. “Many of the points he made struck me as confirming the unique strengths we…

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Intensive Outpatient Program at OPI Living Expands Services For Local Young Adults

We Treat the Whole Person, Not Just the Disorder

Young adults aged 17–28 in the Los Angeles area who need help defining goals and becoming independent can now participate in a unique Intensive Outpatient Program at the Optimum Performance Institute. This program offers everything from individual and group psychotherapy, life coaching and career development classes to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), yoga, tennis, hiking and…

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